# MCP Public APIs

An MCP server that indexes the [public-apis](https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis) catalogue and lets an LLM query it by category, auth type, HTTPS support, CORS, and keyword — without browsing the README manually.

## Why

Without this MCP, an LLM recommending a public API has to guess or ask the user to check manually. With it, the LLM can say:

> "I need a Books API, HTTPS, no auth, CORS-enabled for your React app."
> → `query_apis(category="Books", no_auth=True, https=True, cors="yes")`

## Tools

| Tool | Description |
|---|---|
| `list_categories` | Returns all available API categories (Animals, Finance, …) |
| `query_apis` | Filters the index by keyword, category, auth, HTTPS, CORS |
| `update_index` | Re-downloads the README and rebuilds the index |

### `query_apis` parameters

| Parameter | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| `keyword` | `str` | Substring match on name or description |
| `category` | `str` | Exact category (case-insensitive) |
| `auth` | `str` | `"apiKey"`, `"OAuth"`, `""` (none), etc. |
| `no_auth` | `bool` | Shortcut: APIs that need no authentication |
| `https` | `bool` | `True` = HTTPS only, `False` = HTTP only |
| `cors` | `str` | `"yes"`, `"no"`, `"unknown"` |

## Installation

```bash
cd MCP_PUBLIC_APIS
pip install -e .
```

## Running

```bash
mcp-public-apis
```

Or add it to your MCP client config:

```json
{
  "mcpServers": {
    "public-apis": {
      "command": "mcp-public-apis"
    }
  }
}
```

## Development

```bash
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest
```

## Data Source

The index is built from the raw `README.md` of [public-apis/public-apis](https://github.com/public-apis/public-apis) on GitHub, which lists ~1400 public APIs organised into ~80 categories. The schema mirrors the README table exactly:

`name · url · description · auth · https · cors · category`